What’s the average price for roof paint?

I got a 54 Chevy two-ten sedan that I have been slowly fixing here and there and now that it’s road ready, I’m focusing on cosmetics and was wondering how much I need to save up to have the roof repainted. I was trying to go with a candy/metal flake roof so I know that’s a little more than the average paint job. Everyone I’ve called (that’s out of the way from me) says they need me to bring the car for an estimate and in reality I don’t want to drive it too far, only to get turned around. If anyone on here knows a rough estimate on what the job would cost it would be greatly appreciated. I’m located in San Fernando Valley, CA so if anyone knows someone close that will also be tons of help.

 

Custom paint is expensive!
I know of prices quoted of 10 too 15k just for the spray, with body work on top of that.
Best thing I can say is try it yourself. Jon Kasmowski of House of Kolor started spraying painting a when he was a meter reader for a power co..
Look for his videos

 

Cant estimate something ya can’t see
Things like condition of existing paint and what type of paint that’s on it affects pricing.

 

I’ve thought about trying it myself. I have a junk car I could practice on. I’m just scared to mess up my baby

 

Go for it. Practice a bit on some junk. First thing I ever painted was a lace job on a 64 Impala side panel. Google the basics and it will be cool. You can always sand and repaint it later.

 

Never be afraid of messing up.
It’s just paint.
Plenty of folks here can walk ya through it

 

I am with the others, do it yourself. You will be spraying the primer first and that will get you started. Every pro was a beginner at first.

 

That is like me asking You...
How much to roof my shop...
Pic's Brother!

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ke-flames-wanna-see-wild-custom-paint.257556/

Look through this thread

 

watch both parts.

 

Don’t worry about messing up, that’s what they make sandpaper for!

The best advice I can give is get some cheap single stage paint and practice practice practice on that parts car before you do your good car.

 

I also say go for it, especially if you're on a budget. You can buy a spray gun pretty cheap (won't last forever but if you wear it out you can buy a better one) and I've gotten a lot of paint for free off the shelves of shops that don't want it laying around anymore.

You can rest easy knowing that with paint, there's nothing you're going to permanently damage. Even if the paint turns out absolutely awful, you can always just strip it off and be back at square one, no harm done.

Read up on the process, practice some, and give it a try, you might be able to turn out something really nice, and you'll be extra proud since you did it yourself. Plus, cheaper.

 

This is what i love about this place!

 

Why not take this as an opportunity to learn and do it yourself? Watch several videos on YouTube. Get some equipment, doesn't have to be full pro quality. Hint Harbor freight spray gun can do fine. Get some paint from local supply or mail order. Again, doesn't have to be the top line from the big paint companies. Get enough you can paint scraps to get the feel and teaching yourself. Your results may be less than a pro, but I bet your results will be plenty good for now. And have your car looking better and how you envision.

Just try it. For probably less than $500 in tools and materials you can do it. If it goes to shit, all you are out is a fraction of the cost for hiring it out and your labor time. But you will learn a skill that at minimum help you understand the process.

 

You need to practice with base coat.
Super easy to spray.
Tape doesn’t like to stick to base coat.
Metallic base coat is fragile
Lay down a base color.
Then one coat of clear. (Might require more than one for big flakes)
Then sand that clear.
Clean. Lay out stripes (graphics)
Spray the graphics,remove tape then clear again.
We shot these stripes today at school

 

Truthfully since that is a lowrider thing far more than a custom car thing find some young gun lowrider painter who is working at perfecting his skills to shoot it with you buying the materials.
We used to have a couple of kids here in town who could shoot flake and candy like a bandit but couldn't do finish body work worth a squat. I don't think either had had a long board in his hands or even knew what one was as you could see DA gouges down the side of the cars the did from one end to the other but there wasn't a flaw one with the gun work or design layouts.

 

NO NO MAN! Never be afraid to make a mistake and learn something. Get a cheap Harbor Freight spray gun. Go to Tractor Supply or what you have near you that Kalifornia allows you to spray. Watch some U Tube videos. Take an old door hood or trunk and shoot it. Do it again and again until you get it right. Now. You just learned a new skill and will save you money now and in the future. Maybe even find you like it and are really good. Your State is a hard one to do some things but even the newer water based paints can look good with the technology we have today. Never ever be afraid.

 

If you got the car to the point where it is ready to see some paint, you probably have the talent for that, too.
An, as others have said, you can always sand it off if you don't like it. Much less obtrusive than metal work.

 

I have been doing custom body and paint for 30+ years. With that said, i will say what everyone else has so far. Do it yourself! The materials will cost anywhere from 4-800$ depending on color and quality. The nice thing about flake is, you are going to sand and spray it like 4 or 5 times just to cover the bumps from the flake, so mistakes are easily fixed. Go on youtube and pick a guy that teaches in a way you can learn and make it happen.

 

Cheap H/Freight gun to get you started. Invest in a quality respirator!!! Do not skimp or take shortcuts here.

Auto Zone and O'Reilly's stock quarts of Duplicolor "Paint Shop" lacquer in various colors for about $25 qt. It's premixed, ready to spray out of the can w/o a need for reducers, etc. and flows out fairly well.

Another angle for cheap paint is to see if your local auto paint supplier has any mismatched cans that they're clearancing out.

Practice your gun technique spraying your junk car or junk panels repeatedly with the cheap stuff until you feel ready to mix up some real paint.

 

Do you have an air compressor?
Paint gun?
Fairly dust-free work area?
Respirator?
Stuff to practice painting on?
Masking/paint thinning/cleaning supplies?
Do you want to/can you make the equipment investment?
No? Then find some local young guns (probably low riders) that want to make some side money. It will be a lot cheaper than gearing up for it yourself. JMO, YMMV

 

Guy who painted my A worked for a local trash hauling company doing their body work, mechanicals and odd stuff, but the boss let him use the shop's equipment for side jobs. I bought all the paint and supplies. It ran about $5K five years ago and there's not much to paint on a cycle fendered, hoodless Model A Ford. He did a decent job.

 

I wouldn't waste my time and effort on a cheap HF spray gun, as you'll likely get less than acceptable results, and end up frustrated and not going further. I'd at least buy the HF spray guns in the $100 range, as I've used both, and the difference between the cheap $15 and the $80 is significant.
But if you decide to try to paint the roof, and you have a decent gun, and a compressor that can keep up, you can't start on a better place than the roof, as it's easier to lay down a nice paint job on a fairly flat horizontal surface than anywhere else.
And you can screw up the job probably 4 times and still be into it less money than paying someone else to do it once. I'd start with inexpensive paint like Summit sells, in a single stage urethane, and shoot it on the other car first. You can prep the surface, and once it's dried you can shoot it over if the first try didn't come out as good as you'd like.

 

Coloring is fun. LOL
And you can have fun with this.
And I hope you do.
Even doing the research and absorbing the pertinent information can be quite gratifying. And then a little practice and experimentation on test panels will show you a lot.
Even if you don't have spray equipment, some amazingly nice work can be done with spray cans of standard acrylic enamel paint. If you go that route, you can then cover everything in epoxy clear that's available in spray cans also.
Prep the roof. Sand sand sand.
Primer, sand, primer, sand.
Paint. Sand.
Clear, sand, clear, sand.
Clear, sand, clear, sand.
Until you're using sandpaper so fine that it doesn't even feel like sandpaper. Watch everything start to get shiny.
Buff with polishing compound.
Magic. Like glass.
Side benefit... plenty of upper body exercise. LOL

 

I shot the cab with a harbor freight purple hvlp gun ... try it

 

Auto body shops have stacks of old paint they can't/wont use (Left overs from repair jobs). I have got free paint from them just by asking. Mixed some together to get a color I like and the amount I needed. The harbor freight purple paint gun is literally $15 and does better then expected. I have painted 3 O/T cars with good results.

If you really do not want to do it I have asked at auto paint supply shops about painters and helpers and they sometimes have a board or know people who do it on the side.

 

FYI- Pep Boys gives a senior discount on the Duplicolor "Paint shop" so I had my Father in law buy it for me and we got it even cheaper.

 

I get mismatched, out of date and leftover paint from our supplier for students to practice with.
We go through a few HF cheapie guns.
Good gun for students to mess up.
Actually they spray decent.
A better quality gun will show the difference on how it lays down metallics. Especially a blend.
But the $10-$15 HF guns are worth every penny. But so are the $500 plus guns.
AnestIwata makes a great lower cost gun.
AitGunsa. Around $130-$160